HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 495 



their combs in the most fantastic manner. Yet glass is 

 an artificial substance, against which instinct merely 

 cannot have provided them : there is nothing in hollow 

 trees, their natural habitation, resembling it. When 

 they change the direction of their combs, they enlarge 

 the cells of one side to two or three times the dia- 

 meter of those of the other, which gives the requisite 

 curve. 



To complete the detail of these interesting discoveries 

 of the elder Huber, I must lay before you the following 

 additional observations of his son. 



The first base of the combs upon which the bees work 

 holds three or four cells, sometimes more. The comb 

 continues of the same width for three or four inches, 

 and then begins to widen for three quarters of its length. 

 The bees engaged at the bottom lengthen it downwards; 

 those on the sides widen it to right and left ; and those 

 which are employed above the thickest part extend its 

 dimensions upwards. The more a comb is enlarged be- 

 low, the more it is necessary that it should be enlarged 

 upwards to the top of the hive. The bees that are en- 

 gaged in lengthening the comb, work with more celerity 

 than those which increase its width ; and those that as- 

 cend or increase its width upwards, more slowly than 

 the rest. Hence it arises that it is longer than wide, and 

 narrower towards the top than towards the middle. 

 The first formed cells are usually not so deep as those 

 in the middle ; but when the comb is of a certain height, 

 they are in haste to lengthen these cells so essential to 

 the solidity of the whole, sometimes even making them 

 longer than the rest. The cells are not perfectly hori- 

 2bntal ; they are almost always a little higher towards 



